Traditionally, resources, such as computing devices and other types of devices, which had Internet connectivity were stationary while connected to the Internet. For instance, a desktop computer that is able to connect to the Internet is deployed at a given location for an indefinite period of time. Even a laptop computer, which is considered a portable device, is usually stationary while connected to the Internet. That is, the laptop computer may be moved from one location to another, but while the laptop computer is connected to the Internet, it typically remains at a given location.
More recently, other types of resources, such as cellular and mobile phones, personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, and other types of devices, including laptop computers, have Internet connectivity in which the resources are mobile while connected to the Internet. For example, a mobile phone may be connected to the Internet, while the phone is being moved from one location to another. The user of the mobile phone may be in a car, a train, or simply walking around.
To provide for Internet connectivity in which resources are mobile while connected to the Internet, a given mobile resource, which is also referred to as a mobile node herein, may have a home address within a home network, and receive care-of addresses while in foreign networks, which are networks other than the home network. For example, a mobile phone may have a home cell, or network.
When the mobile phone is transported to a different cell, which is a foreign network, the mobile phone receives a care-of address that it can temporarily use while in this foreign network. The mobile phone immediately registers this care-of address with its home agent, which is a computing device within the home network. The home agent forwards communications received at the mobile phone's home address to the mobile phone's care-of address while the mobile phone is in the foreign network.
This approach for providing Internet connectivity to mobile resources does not scale very well, however, when there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or millions, of mobile resources constantly moving among different foreign networks. Regardless of whether a mobile phone currently has an ongoing communication session or not, the mobile phone always immediately registers with its home agent when the mobile phone travels to a new foreign network (or when it is turned on in a foreign network). A given home agent may be the home agent for a large number of devices, a majority of which may be traveling within foreign networks at any given time.
Thus, the home agent may be constantly receiving care-of address registrations from mobile resources that are traveling within foreign networks, even if most of these resources do not currently have ongoing communication sessions that require the home agent to immediately know the care-of addresses of the mobile resources. The home agent may become overburdened fairly quickly. Furthermore, the networks themselves can be overburdened, with many mobile resources constantly registering with their home agents as the resources traverse different foreign networks. That is, the bandwidth of the networks may be consumed by registration communications, as opposed to, for instance, communications.
For these and other reasons, therefore, there is a need for the present invention.